Monthly Archives: January 2013

Romanita Hairston, World Vision's vice president for U.S. programs, recently had the opportunity to attend the presidential inauguration on January 21, 2013. Today, she reflects on our nation's future and challenges us to help children in need in the United States.

Recently, I saw the latest film adaptation of Les Misérables. Though I know the story well from Victor Hugo’s novel and have seen the live musical stage performance, something about this latest version especially moved me to tears.

Contortion -- the art of flexing and bending your body into jaw-dropping positions -- is a highly-respected, centuries-old tradition in Mongolia. As part of its development program in the area, World Vision supports a contortion class to help children have fun and develop social skills.

On Martin Luther King Day, the national attention is centered on the start of Obama’s second administration. Following Election Day—when voters also approved a number of measures opposed by many Christians—many felt the country seemed to be headed in the wrong direction. At least, that’s how it appeared to some Christian leaders and commentators. One called it “a catastrophe for crucial moral concerns.” At the same time, the federal budget, political impasse, and a host of problems divide the nation. What are we, as Christians, to do?

Mali enjoyed two decades of democratic rule until the growing rebel insurgency led to a military coup in March 2012, leaving the former French colony with a weakened government. World Vision began working here in 1975 and is especially concerned for displaced children and families as fighting escalates in the north. Please join World Vision in prayer for the people of Mali.

The national identity card is helping to ensure that children from the Miramar community in Peru have access to their fundamental rights -- like medical care and community programs. Carmen shares how this piece of identification has changed her life -- and the lives of her children.

The director of a soon-to-be-released film charting the lives of girls struggling to get an education in some of the world’s toughest places deliberately abandoned the techniques of conventional documentary filmmaking.

The film Girl Rising, whose narrators include Meryl Streep, Kerry Washington, and Selena Gomez, is due for theatrical release in March.

During the recent conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, I was evacuated along with other World Vision colleagues to Gisenyi, Rwanda, a town a little more than a mile across the border.

We were later allowed to return to Goma to help civilians who had been displaced. Rebels of the March 23 (M23) movement were in charge of the city, and thousands of people had lost their homes and sense of stability.

On January 12, 2010, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake shook Haiti and shaped a generation. While its duration was brief, the devastation it caused continues to affect the people of this small country -- the poorest in the Western Hemisphere. Three years later, Haiti is still in repair, but not without hope.

Educating children must be a priority for helping build a better future. This is true in any part of the world -- including our own nation.

On December 6, World Vision staff drove a large trailer packed with essential educational supplies into the parking lot at Roosevelt High School in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. This mobile Teacher Resource Center is a new way World Vision is supporting teachers in under-resourced communities.

I’m never one to answer really fast, because I always want to give a real answer. I could just say, “It was great!” -- and the conversation would end there, but that would defeat the purpose of why I went.

I went so I could tell people about what’s going on in Kenya and what World Vision is doing to help out.

This Christmas season, you had the chance to follow along as Kris Allen journeyed to Kenya to learn what really happens when you give gifts through the World Vision Gift Catalog. Today, Kris Allen has a special message for you!

As a World Vision staff member, I find myself surrounded each day by stories, many of which break my heart. I'm forced to stop whatever I'm doing, gather myself, and say a prayer for someone I have never met.

Other times, my heart swells with hope, and my eyes are filled with tears of joy.

What these stories have in common is that behind each one is a person whose voice needs to be heard. Over the past year, the World Vision Blog has been filled with voices from around the world -- asking for help, grieving, or celebrating progress. These are our top stories from 2012.